In an effort to be clear about how I invest my energy, I've been looking at how keeping the past alive might be draining the energy I have available to live my fullest life today.

I'm a fan of the past, so that means choosing to hold on to the parts that support my current life, (Get it? CURRENT? As in energy flow, and present-time awareness!) and my help me move into my brightest, lightest, shiniest future. (Light can be both energetic glowing and free-floaty weightlessness.)

This applies to financial investments, space for storage, and energy in keeping friendships alive, too.

So this blog may not look like it once did, or as pretty as I might want it to be, but I've chosen not to pay the monthly fee to keep old projects looking like new. I've chosen a FREE account, because it makes me feel free! (Because FREE is both without financial cost and without restriction of movement.)

I invite you to join me in being free-flowing and light! And may my past bring joy to your present. (PRESENT is both NOW and a gift!)

This is truly a first for me, and I was so excited, I had to share with everyone!

I've been writing for a website called Beliefnet.com for the past few months — a milestone in itself because I've been wanting to write for them for years!

Why? They feature ALL beliefs from the all major religions, and then some.

But today is the first time I've been featured on their front page! The very first of their 4 rotating banners, and with my name just there beneath it! (Until Monday, July 21st anyway…)

As someone who's been a ghostwriter for many years, I feel like I've finally stepped out into the sun. Aaaaaah! I am fairly certain it has something to do with my lovely friend, Trish Kusal Wilson, who allowed me to use her photographs. The glory is all the sweeter when it's shared!

I partly began writing for Beliefnet because I thought it would be a good way to connect with an audience that could understand and appreciate the podcast I co-host on Unity Online Radio, called "Pop Conscious: Where Pop Culture & Spirituality Unite!" It is exactly my ministry style, actually, as I study to one day become a fully ordained Unity minister — rejecting no one and nothing in the world, just using it all to be more understanding, more positive and creative and help make the world a happier place.

Here are links to check it all out, if you wanna! And if you know anyone who'd make a good radio guest or interview subject while talking about entertainment and enlightenment, please get in touch!

If you are familiar with the Law of Mind Action and the Law of Attraction, you know that what we think about, we experience. Being a conscious consumer of pop culture (or one who is “Pop Conscious”) means examining our choices of entertainment and mass media for how they enrich our lives … or not.

We can do so with these three basic steps: Observe, Discern, and Choose.

1. Observe

While enjoying your favorite TV shows, films, music, or other entertainment, assume the role of an observer and pay attention to what you’re watching, listening to, and reading. You might think about it in terms of how someone else would see you, based on your choices.

A good tool is to examine your presets or favorites on your television, stereo, or any entertainment system. What apps dominate your phone or tablet computer? What’s the music on your playlists? Don’t forget your guilty pleasures! Look for patterns and themes. Awareness is the first step!

2. Discern

Discernment is one of our 12 spiritual powers as taught by Charles Fillmore, so why not use it? We can ask ourselves, “How do these shows, songs, books, make me feel?” “Does this make me think? Do I feel smarter afterward?”

If they’re guilty pleasures, why do you feel guilty? Remember, in Unity, we know guilt is not a constructive emotion … unless we can learn from it. It’s okay to “take your hour of rest” and not think for a while. Even God rested on the seventh day! What about these “guilty pleasures” appeals to you? Look for the underlying value.

For example, one summer Stacy felt guilty because she kept playing Yahtzee on her phone instead of taking the time to meditate. She mentioned this to our minister, Rev. Molly Rockey, who replied, “Oh! That’s your Yahtzee meditation!” Giving herself permission to enjoy the break allowed Stacy to get what she needed from the experience. When she was ready, she renewed her meditation practice.

I found that I spent a fair amount of time not just watching murder mystery TV shows, like Castle and Bones, but also being concerned about the characters for days afterward. Good storytelling can account for some of it, but I found I liked solving puzzles and studying psychology. The sense of justice at the end was satisfying too.

3. Choose, Consciously

Ask yourself these questions: What will feed my dreams? What might inspire me to be my best self? What might educate and inform, and also be entertaining? If I’m staring at the TV just to zone out and relax, what will make me feel better later? Are there other shows that might better serve the underlying values I’m looking for? What are other like-minded people watching or listening to? Check with your Facebook friends or even the real ones that you meet in person!

Venture outside the habitual comfort zone and channel surf a bit! Try channels like Discovery and National Geographic, or OWN–Oprah Winfrey’s Network. You can even try just snippets on YouTube or your cable or satellite provider’s preview channel. Expand your horizons by stepping to the edge of what you know and embark upon adventures you can undertake from the couch—instead of being a couch potato, be a conscious armchair explorer! And don’t forget the resources available at Unity Online Radio!

We covered guilty pop pleasures like my one-time Twilight obsession, which lead us to examine social evolution and inner demons. The Grammy Awards lead us to marvel at how music can bring the world and generations together. We discussed how Cirque du Soleil confirms that “with God all things are possible.” We talked about science fiction visionary Arthur C. Clarke and how in life today, science fiction from the past has become our present reality.

In media terms, what we pay attention to is measured in ratings and advertising dollars. If we are watching something that has irredeemable characters, no happy endings, or glorifies a lifestyle we find isn’t worth celebrating, we can turn our attention away—simply by changing the channel! Let’s give our support to something we’d like to see continue and gain in popularity. And in this way, our choices can affect others in a positive way.

Everything in our sphere of experience can become a tool for spiritual exploration and self-growth. Having grown up in Unity, Stacy and I have learned to look for the metaphor and metaphysical interpretations of just about everything.

Malayna Dawn is cohost of the Unity Online Radio program Pop Conscious: Where Pop Culture and Spirituality Unite. She and her cohost, Stacy Macris Ros, are lifelong Unity students who are both working toward their ministerial credentials. Malayna is the office manager at Unity of the Oaks in Thousand Oaks, California, and author of a spiritual adventure novel, Echoes Across Time.

I came up with a great new mission statement, and I already feel it shaping my experience:

"I use my voice — written, spoken and sung — to share my worldview in order to inform and inspire joy, abundance and a life well-lived."

I've been feeling a bit shattered and scattered, and needed something to tie all my pieces together again. These felt like the magic words.

I've been focusing on my writing for a while now — about a decade. Then, for the past five years, I've been the voice of Colombo Fashion Week. I like working on CFW because I get to utilize so many of my abilities at once, and it makes me feel like a useful part of a team. I write the scripts, edit the printed programs and manage the online content for the web and social networking. I get to use my performance experience on the nights of the show, too.

Another thing I've been doing to some extent lately is performing wedding ceremonies. Previously, I only did that for my friends and their friends, but as a means of feeling useful, I've begun sharing that experience with new friends that I hadn't met yet. It feels like being a kamikaze fairy — I dive in, deliver the magic words, wave my wand and disappear, leaving the completed mission behind me. I didn't really publicize that I was doing this work, because it didn't really seem to fit.

But lately, I've been feeling the pull toward music again — my first love. And I've actually begun taking steps to put myself out there in a whole new way.

So this mission statement lets me incorporate my musical experience and my wedding ceremony services as well as my fashion week announcing, because they all fit! AND "world view" is a perfect way to describe the new travel site/network, Spiral Whirled Travels, as well as my take on pop culture and mythology and symbolism and spirituality. It's like Prego, it's all in there!

I shifted my creative focus to the written word after moving to Sri Lanka in 2000. The magical and exotic land of my ancestors inspired me to begin my first novel, Echoes Across Time.

I also took the opportunity to work at Young Asia Television, writing and producing scripts for a magazine-format show about women’s issues in the developing world.

My first freelance writing was published by Adoh! Magazine in Sri Lanka, which helped me get hired to write for the Daily OM.com, and then other magazines and websites followed.You can get a sampling from my website at malaynadawn.com/articles.

I’ve since worked as a blogger-for-hire for the organization Garments Without Guilt in Sri Lanka and for a U.S.-based web services company, writing on just about everything you could imagine.

You can read some of my Garments Without Guilt posts on my Yahoo Shine page. The rest are corporate secrets, but the general info I can share: Topics included mind-body-spirit approaches to health, subcultures, internet culture, inspiration for recovery from substance abuse, natural health, orchids, funeral customs, collaborative divorce, restaurant trends, and sensory research, among others.

With a friend and partner, I began writing for a travel blog called Women on World Excursions. It inspired me to travel more and share the journey.

I’ve also been interviewed on a few other radio shows — you can hear me on Karma Air and on SLBC by going to my website’s Novel page at malaynadawn.com/novel and clicking on the links under Press Coverage.

If you’re looking for a non-traditional wedding, I also perform wedding ceremonies. I’ve done enough of them now that I have a standard “script” that I use, and then I tailor it to fit each couple. Here’s my wedding celebrant site: http://malaynadawn.wix.com/wedding-celebrant

I did have some training in public speaking — while interning at L.A. radio station KROQ-FM, Raymond Banister (AKA Raymondo) gave a production class, and I even voiced an ad or two, as well as occasionally speaking on air.

Of course, I also had drama classes and performed in musicals from 4th grade onward, and public speaking was part of what I did as an officer for the Youth of Unity from the age of 13 – 18.

1982 – At the age of 12, I was one of about 8 kids to sing in the studio with Frank Sinatra. We’re not shown on this video, but this is the song and that’s us singing! Pretty much the height of my singing career.

Some other cool things we ( meaning The Carol Lombard Singers, our professional children’s group) got to do included live performances for celebrity charity organizations, recording vocal tracks for television commercials (Vivitar Cameras, Knott’s Berry Farm), recording for albums (Strawberry Shortcake, Sea World), singing the for TV specials (On camera: Young & the Restless – Christmas Miracle episode, Off-camera: The John Schneider Christmas Special) and even did a film on camera*. We also got to record with Marvin Hamlisch.

In High School, I sang with the Vannaires, a vocal jazz ensemble, that’s kinda like GLEE. Here’s one of our more fun moments, taking over a yogurt shop:

I had a few moments in my early 20’s when I sang on camera for TV and film. *The film was a romantic comedy called The Butcher’s Wife, starring Demi Moore. We sang the diametrically opposed “Pigfoot & a Bottle of Beer” and “Ave Maria” in Latin (which I later sang for a friend’s wedding in a huge Catholic cathedral in Virginia!).

The TV show was “Who’s the Boss” — here’s a clip:

Creatively, the height of my singing career was the co-creation of the a cappella group Pandora’s Vox, which later became Primitive Soul. Here’s a sampling of of our signature tune, “Urban Tribe”, paired with visuals of the fictional planet Pandora from the film Avatar.(However, this pairing was done by me — it was not actually in the film.)

Sadly, Primitive Soul broke up over creative differences in 1999.

In 2000 I moved to Sri Lanka, and since then, only sing for friends’ weddings or other events, or when I’m in L.A., at my little church.

By Malayna Dawn, Compere and Communications Consultant to Colombo Fashion Week since 2008

If you’re coming to Sri Lanka to be part of Colombo Fashion Week, you’ll want to make sure your entire trip is one of style and beauty. Luckily, that won’t be too difficult to do in the vibrant, diverse city of Colombo!Let me tell you about some of the best places to be and sights to see.

The host hotel is The Hilton Colombo Hotel once again, overlooking the Indian Ocean and Beira Lake. While you may be tempted not to leave the hotel grounds, I say you must. Within walking distance you can use the hotel’s direct access to the World Trade Center and then wander out the front entrance of either building to be introduced to the FORT District where modern day business takes place amidst old world architecture.

If the Mayan calendar is right, and the world is ending on December 21 2012, (my birthday) or even transforming dramatically, this could be the last Christmas* and the last New Year. At least, the last one we might recognize.

Kinda a bummer, I know. But we Unitics (AKA Truth students, positive thinkers, Pollyannas) can make it work for us.

Last year, we thought it might be the last holiday we could spend in our family home, so we did it UP!

We infused every aspect with appreciation and love, and lived it consciously and meaningfully.

(P.S.–Thanks to the law of attraction and our attitude of gratitude, we didn’t lose the house!)

Let’s treat this holiday season the same way. Deck the heck out of those halls, and trim those trees to teetering! Be good to yourself, and give to others from the heart.

If anything can stop the end of the world, it would be unfettered, unadulterated LOVE. And if it can’t be stopped, we may as well enjoy it to the fullest, live in the moment and have no regrets.

Make the most of the Mayan prophecy and make this holiday season the best EVAH!

(And if it turns out NOT to be the end of the world, we can top ourselves next holiday season while we giggle.)

Archives

Archives

Be sure to check out Pop Conscious

Visit the blog at PopConscious.com and find links to listen to any of the over 100 episodes that connect entertainment to enlightment.

Read ECHOES ACROSS TIME

Part spiritual adventure, part feminist fairy tale, this modern-day myth takes you through a mystical series of events from America to Sri Lanka spanning four generations. Ultimately the tale offers insight into how each of our souls has at least one connection that echoes across time.
Echoes Across Time is available from Amazon.com

Embark upon Spiral Whirled Travels

Learn how to travel the world, and/or through time and upon flights of fancy! Visit the Spiral Whirled Travels website.

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